Vaccines, Supply Chain Shortage, Elon Musk's Robots, and the Mandate

Please note there are things in this post that restate claims about the vaccine that seems strange, likely untrue, and should not be taken as scientific facts.  I am sharing this information because we should all read for ourselves. To learn more about vaccines visit credible scientific websites.  If they’re credible - they will tell you how they came up with the data.

All over social media, there are "pure dee" fights about the efficacy of the vaccine, whether it's the mark of the beast, whether Black people should be worried given the "Syphilis experiment" - say what, now? And, of course, I cannot leave out whether the mRNA technology used will somehow warp a person's DNA. There is a lot of information, and if you're a person trying to understand, I am not sure any of the information or the discussions people are having are helpful. In many ways, these debates are stirring confusion and scaring people.  

Take, for example, the strange and outlandish phenomenon in the form of the rhetorical fight between the White House and one sizable social platform. Where the former said the social media platform caused deaths. If I were a story runner for one of Dick Wolf's TV franchises, I would write about this saga - it's ripe.

The purpose of this inaugural newsletter is not to debate the science - at all. I'm not a scientist. Rather, the purpose is to encourage people to read factual information and think critically about where we have been since the pandemic began. And importantly, to point out that when human beings are fearful, we do crazy things.  

For the course of our time together, you'll realize that I'm a contrarian. So the discussions here, my criticisms, and my points of contention will begin with my contrarian point of view.   Let’s get started.

What's the bigger picture?

Last week, President Biden announced his new front to attack the pandemic’s spread. The President’s directive is to mandate the vaccine or require weekly testing. This announcement has pushed us into a conversation about being vaccinated or unemployed. However, to understand the economic value placed on vaccines, we must start with a brief overview of the historical context.  

Historically, economic incentives are a primary driver for the push for vaccines and vaccinations - either saving the government money or building society's wealth. However, two issues are part of the discussion that is often left untouched. First is the industry and economy that advocating immunization creates. Creating a case for vaccine immunization creates a cottage industry for vaccine research, development, and manufacturing. The COVID-19 pandemic is no exception. Second, there is a more vital economic point - the human capital that stalls economic growth.

In the tech world where I once worked, detractors claimed that people paid for free services with their data. What the pandemic has taught us is that humans are widgets in the global economy. From essential workers to the rush to reach herd immunity, what we've seen is a push to keep our capitalistic system engine humming.

People are ultimately missing how the global pandemic's fallout will redefine or reshape the haves and have nots. Put another way, the policies created around who has had COVID-19 (the long-term effects) and who have taken the vaccine will further define your status in society.

Is there cause and effect between SARS-CoV-2 and the supply chain shortage?

A Democratic strategist and writer recently posited that the pending Flint auto workers layoffs due to the semiconductor shortage that impacted a friend's car dealership in Ohio would impact the ability for consumers to purchase new vehicles, the sales team at the dealerships.

He's right. All of these supply chains are interconnected.  When I started to look at the data, we immediately felt a supply chain shortage at each peak point during the pandemic, where the supply chain essentially overheats - computer chips, masks, home building materials, and paper products. It's affected numerous industries - auto manufacturers to auto dealerships, toilet paper, to construction companies.  

This notion of globalization made me think of the debate around free trade during the 1970s and 80s. I recall vividly when my mom was in Business School how much friction the debate on NAFTA caused the Democratic party, drawing a line in the sand between the ivory tower Democrats and the working-class part of the Democratic party. The message of competition globally did not sit well with working-class Americans. The irony is nothing has changed - it's spiraled into the populist sentiments we see on the party's extremes.

I've digressed, so let me bring it back to today. As we grapple with the pandemic, we see with the "great supply chain shortage” are skeletons of the debate around free trade vs. fair trade and globalization. These issues for a large part of the country are familiar, particularly for those who have seen factories disappear, wages decline, and skills diminish for the available jobs.  

All of this has exacerbated the social wars we find ourselves dealing with daily with whether to wear masks, questions around mandating vaccines or not, and how these issues impact economic opportunity.  

Stay with me for a moment; I see my exit.

How Does Elon Musk's Humanoid Robot Fit Into the Discussion?  

In perfect Elon Musk fashion, he blurted out this idea of creating a human robot - the Tesla Bot. Some people dismissed it as tomfoolery, but you've followed any of his rants during the pandemic. Beyond the misinformation and his COVID-19 diagnosis, you can boil it all down to these three points:

1. April: he railed on Twitter to Free America and co-signed that the lockdown was "fascist."
2. June: In defiance of California's stay-at-home orders, he sent his employees back to work, and then COVID entered the Tesla operations. He retreated and started tweeting about Sweden.
3. September: During an interview with New York Times tech and media columnist Kara Swisher's Sway podcast, he claimed that he and his family would not take the vaccine.  

With his somewhat "cult-like" following, this anti-vaccine rhetoric certainly adds to this view that not taking the vaccine elsewhere is okay. Right? But, now, with his plans to create a humanoid robot to replace humans at work. The plan is no tomfoolery but a much clearer capitalistic one.

Here is my off-ramp: What’s the bottom line?

I began with the following point: There is a historical connection between vaccines and economics. And, the push to immunization for COVID-19 has an economic incentive.

Well, Mr. Musk's rants are nothing more than his capitalistic hunger, and replacing humans with robots furthers that theory. So I’ll let you come up with your opinion about Mr. Musk and his human robot.

As I close, we should ask - from a political perspective, are politicians focused on the right things long-term:  

1. Long-COVID implications and complications
2. Do people have the right skills to care for their families after a shift along socioeconomic lines?

If you've enjoyed this edition of The Weekly Fertilizer, join us for more of my contrarian views.  I'm out, M.